Charles Barkley rips ‘idiots’ at ESPN, future home of ‘Inside the NBA,’ for saying ‘Lakers saved the NBA’

Tiger Woods won't be at The Players Championship next week. That wasn't a big surprise. Woods has not played in the PGA Tour's flagship event since 2019 and it would have been big news if had decided to play. But this was the last year of Woods' exemption to The Players from winning the Masters in 2019. That means if he plays in the Masters next month, it will be his first tournament since he missed the cut at the British Open last July. Woods says he has touched golf clubs only three times since his mother died on Feb. 4.

Katherine Legge has raced in just about every series possible during her 25-year journey in professional motorsports, ranging from dirt tracks to IndyCar. Even so, she doesn’t mind admitting to being nervous about potentially rubbing fenders with the likes of Joey Logano, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell in her first NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday at Phoenix Raceway. Legge is set to become the first woman in a NASCAR Cup Series race since Danica Patrick made her final start in the Daytona 500 seven years ago. She’ll drive the No. 78 Chevrolet for Live Fast Motorsports.

Unbeaten Lauren Price has been too fast for the veteran Natasha Jonas as she won their unification world welterweight title fight comfortably in London. Price, of Wales, was the paper-thin favorite but impressively overwhelmed Jonas and won by unanimous decision on Friday. Price relieved the Englishwoman of her WBC and IBF belts to add to her IBO belt. The 2021 Olympic champion improved her record to 9-0. Jonas’ seven-win streak since a 2021 loss to Katie Taylor ended without dispute in a matchup of southpaws. Jonas, 10 years older than Price at 40, struggled to hit Price and lost for the third time in 20 fights.

Giancarlo Stanton will return to New York for a third round of platelet-rich plasma injections in his ailing elbows on Monday. Stanton was back at the Yankees’ spring training complex on Friday. Manager Aaron Boone was quoted as saying Stanton is not likely to play in any exhibition games. Stanton said on Feb. 17 after reporting to camp that he had not swung a bat in three or four weeks because of pain in both elbows. The Yankees said he had been in New York, where he received two rounds of PRP injections.

Houston Astros first baseman Christian Walker received some good news regarding the oblique issue that has limited him this spring training. Walker had flown back to Houston to get the oblique examined. Astros manager Joe Espada told reporters the MRI didn’t reveal any strain. Espada said Walker is returning to the Astros’ spring training camp. Walker, who turns 34 on March 28, batted .251 with a .335 on-base percentage, 26 homers and 84 RBIs in 130 games for Arizona last season. He signed a $60 million, three-year contract with the Astros in December.

Oklahoma’s starting center was serenaded with chants of “Beers! Beers! Beers!” from the school’s pep band on Friday. Raegan Beers is getting used to it, and she enjoyed hearing from the band after the 10th-ranked Sooners beat No. 12 Kentucky 69-65 in the Southeastern Conference Tournament quarterfinals. Beers has been stellar in her first two SEC Tournament games. Next up is a matchup with No. 5 South Carolina. The pep band started the “Beers!” chant earlier this season at a home game and it has become a mainstay for the Sooners.

Oregon coach Dan Lanning has agreed to the terms of a contract extension that would keep him with the Ducks through 2030. Yahoo Sports reported that Lanning will make nearly $11 million per season under the agreement, which the university announced on Friday. Oregon was also finalizing extensions for defensive coordinator Tosh Lupoi and offensive coordinator Will Stein that run through the 2027 season. The contracts have been approved by Oregon’s Board of Trustees.

The Tennessee Titans have released veteran linebacker Harold Landry III after signing him to a five-year extension in 2022. The seven-year veteran with one Pro Bowl was due to count $24.1 million against the cap this season. Tennessee now is seventh in the NFL with more than $63 million in salary cap space per Spotrac.com to go along with the No. 1 pick in the April draft after three losing seasons. Landry led the Titans with nine sacks last season. He was one of three NFL defenders with at least 70 tackles and 15 tackles for loss.

Starter Grayson Rodriguez and reliever Andrew Kittredge will miss the Baltimore Orioles’ opener because of injuries. Orioles manager Brandon Hyde tells reporters that Rodriguez has pitching elbow discomfort and Kittredge needs arthroscopic knee surgery and will be sidelined for multiple months. Rodriguez, a 25-year-old right-hander, went 13-4 with a 3.86 ERA in 20 starts last season. He struck out 130 and walked 36 in 116 2/3 innings. Kittredge, who turns 35 on March 17, was 5-5 with a 2.80 ERA and one save in 74 relief appearances for St. Louis last year. Baltimore opens at Toronto on March 27.

De’Aaron Fox spent much of his time in Sacramento as the fan favorite and face of the Kings franchise that ended a record-long playoff drought and brought much-needed joy to what had been a downtrodden team. Fox returns Friday night as part of the opposition to play his first game against his original team since being traded to San Antonio in a three-team deal last month. The end of Fox's time in Sacramento was fractious. He didn't want to sign a contract extension and was unhappy about the firing of coach Mike Brown.

On-loan West Ham winger Maxwel Cornet has bagged his second goal in four games to give Genoa a point away at Cagliari in Serie A. Nicolas Viola opened the scoring for the Sardinian side. Cornet equalized early in the second half on Friday and it held up. The result leaves Genoa in 12th and Cagliari in 15th, four points above the relegation zone.

Xander Schauffele met at least one goal in his return from injury at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. He made the cut for the 58th consecutive time on the PGA Tour. That's the longest streak since Tiger Woods set the record at 142. And the 58 in a row is the sixth-longest streak in history. It wasn't easy. Schauffele is coming off a rib injury that kept him out for two months. He opened with a 77. He was going well Friday until back-to-back double bogeys. But he ran off three birdies in four holes and made it on the number.

President Donald Trump created a task force Friday to prepare for the 2026 World Cup, which will bring the globe’s premier soccer tournament to North America at a time when Trump’s on-again-off-again tariffs have ratcheted up tensions across the continent. The task force, which Trump will chair, will coordinate the federal government’s security and planning for the tournament, which is expected to draw millions of tourists to the United States, Canada and Mexico. Officials from FIFA, the international soccer governing body, met with Trump in the Oval Office and gave him a personalized game ball.

A shocking defensive mix up has helped Toulouse to draw at home to Monaco 1-1 in Ligue 1. The visitor was leading through an early goal from Japanese winger Takumi Minamino and Toulouse rarely looked like equalizing on Friday. But in the last minute, a collision between Monaco's goalkeeeper and centre half allowed Frank Magri to steal in and score into the almost empty net. The result leaves both teams in the same positions, Monaco is fourth and Toulouse eighth. Players from both clubs wore shirts with “WO=MAN” written on the back instead of their names in a league initiative to mark International Women’s Day.

Former Dallas Mavericks majority owner Mark Cuban says he wouldn’t have traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers without receiving much more in return. Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison has come under heavy criticism after sending Doncic to the Lakers in a shocking three-team deal on Feb. 1 that sent Anthony Davis, Max Christie and a 2029 first-round draft pick to Dallas. The Lakers have put themselves in position to be title contenders and the Mavericks are in danger of missing the playoffs after Davis and then Kyrie Irving were injured.

Raegan Beers had 20 points and 11 rebounds, Payton Verhulst added 16 points and No. 10 Oklahoma battled back from a 10-point second-half deficit to beat No. 12 Kentucky 69-65 and advance to the SEC Tournament semifinals. Sahara Williams chipped in with 13 points for Oklahoma, which has won nine straight. The Sooners will face two-time defending Southeastern Conference champion and fifth-ranked South Carolina, an 84-63 winner over Vanderbilt, on Saturday. Georgia Amoore scored 29 points and Clara Strack added 12 points and 16 rebounds to lead Kentucky.

This week in Aspen marks the debut of Shaun White's Snow League. It's a four-contest circuit that the retired three-time Olympic gold medalist hopes can alter the trajectory of halfpipe snowboarding. White's league promises $1.6 million in prize money, and $50,000 first prizes for men and women. It also offers Olympic qualifying points with the Milan-Cortina Games less than a year away. Top names competing this week include defending Olympic champion Ayumu Hirano on the men's side and Maddie Mastro for the women. White says he sees the league as a long-needed way to bring the best riders together more than every four years for the Olympics.

Cam Fowler is back to play in Anaheim for the first time since the Ducks traded the longest-serving and highest-scoring defenseman in franchise history to the St. Louis Blues less than three months ago. Fowler insists he feels no bitterness or disappointment about the way his 14 1/2 seasons in Orange County ended, and he is likely to receive a boisterous welcome when the Blues face the Ducks. Fowler had been a mainstay on the Ducks’ blue line since 2010, when the team selected him with the 12th overall pick. The Ducks traded him to St. Louis in December.

Every player in the top two divisions of men’s soccer in France will have “WO=MAN” written on the back of their jerseys instead of their names this weekend. The French league initiative is centered around International Women’s Day on Saturday. It started Friday with Toulouse’s home game against Monaco. It was continuing on Saturday and Sunday with the other teams in Ligue 1 and Ligue 2. The LFP says the “WO=MAN” message highlights “the importance of gender equality not only on the field, but also in the stands.” LED panels around the pitches will display “WO=MAN” and official match balls have the motto written on them.

In the fast-changing world of college basketball, some things remain constant. Saint Mary’s, the small school in San Francisco’s East Bay region, keeps piling up wins at the rate that only the blue bloods of the sport can match. The Gaes are ranked 21st in the country after winning back-to-back outright regular season titles in the West Coast Conference and head into the conference tournament with a chance to become the first team to repeat as champions other than Gonzaga since Pepperdine in 1991-92.

JuJu Watkins scored 31 points, Kiki Iriafen added 21 and each grabbed 10 rebounds in their first Big Ten Tournament games, leading No. 2 Southern California to an 84-79 victory over Indiana. The Trojans are 3-0 in Indiana this season and have won eight straight. They'll face either fourth-seeded Maryland or fifth-seeded Michigan in Saturday's first semifinal. Yarden Garzon made five 3-pointers and led the Hoosiers with 23 points. The Trojans struggled to pull away until Talia von Oelhoffen and Watkins made back-to-back 3s late in the fourth to give USC its largest lead of the game, 77-68.

Chloe Kitts had 25 points and 10 rebounds and No. 5 South Carolina held off a furious second-half rally from Vanderbilt to win 84-63 on Friday in the SEC Tournament quarterfinals. MiLaysia Fulwiley scored 15 off the bench and Sania Feagin added 13 points for South Carolina, which has won five straight. Coach Dawn Staley’s Gamecocks, the Southeastern Conference’s top seed, appeared plenty motivated to win a third straight tournament title. They came out of the gates strong, shooting a blistering 67% from the field in the first half to build a 48-23 lead at the break.

The NBA fined DeMar DeRozan $25,000 on Friday for publicly criticizing officials after the Sacramento Kings' loss to the Denver Nuggets. “The refs were terrible,” DeRozan said after the 116-110 loss on Wednesday, according to the Sacramento Bee. The Nuggets had 30 free throws to 14 for the Kings. That included a 13-4 difference in the fourth quarter in which Denver outscored Sacramento 32-17.

Former major league outfielder Tyler Naquin says his attempted comeback as a right-handed pitcher was over a year in the making. Naquin played the outfield for four different major league teams from 2016-23. He has signed a minor league contract with the Guardians in hopes of making it back to the big leagues as a pitcher. Naquin says he started working out as a pitcher in January 2024. The 33-year-old Naquin says he hasn’t pitched in an actual game since throwing in a scrimmage while playing for Texas A&M in 2010. He said he also pitched in high school.